Emma's otherworldly adventure
by Esor5896
Summary: Emma is present day girl, lurched into Middle-Earth and must now follow a group of strangers to find her way home. Hopefully not a Mary-Sue.
1. Chapter 1

Emma Venika Dubois-Chrétien was woken up by her alarm clock at 8 in the morning on December 22nd, a few days after the semester examination period at McGill University. She had set her alarm clock at that time, the night before, so she could leave early that morning for her trip back home to Ottawa. While she now loved Montreal after spending about four months there, Ottawa would always be her home, she didn't think she could live the rest of her life anywhere else. She was lucky though because it only took about 2 hours to get from Montreal to Ottawa; and she had be able to go home on some weekends: such as Thanksgiving back in October and her fathers birthday in November.

She had made many friends during her first semester; in fact she was quite popular. This was a significant difference from her high-school days, where she had been somewhat overweight and geeky looking with glasses, braces and unflattering clothes and therefore had had low self esteem and incredibly shy. Now that she had lost the extra weight, by exercising everyday and cutting out junk food like poutine, coffee crisp bars, pizza and candy (among other types of food), she now had a slim and curvy body and her mild acne had cleared up! She had also been able to get her braces off, got laser eye surgery and bought a whole new wardrobe.

Her better physique and new look boosted her self-confidence and she was now completely unrecognizable as the chubby and geeky girl from her high school. Not that she had been really teased or anything- the other kids just didn't pay much attention to her and if they did they were just overly friendly and pitying. The four months at McGill, one of Canadas top Universities had been the best time of her whole school career. Instead of being the quiet girl she was the hot, bubbly girl who worked at the school's library.

The 19-year-old girl had spent an hour the day before packing many of her things for the 3 weeks she would spend at her parents. She had spent the rest of the night with her new friends. They had gone out to a club and had danced and drank until 2 in the morning and she was therefore still pretty tired when her alarm clock came on and started beeping. Stretching and yawning, she got out of her bed, turned off the alarm and grabbed her iPod nano. Putting it on and listening to her favourite songs immediately woke her up and put her in a cherry mood as she made herself breakfast. When she was done eating, she grabbed some clothes and proceeded to the bathroom, where she spent the next hour and a half. When she came out she was dressed in her favourite pair of black skinny jeans and a bright yellow cami under a sky blue hoodie.

She put on some facial moisturizer, curled her eyelashes and applied a bit of mineral foundation, blush, mascara, lip-gloss and put on a pair of pink hoop earrings. Emma then checked to make sure she had packed what she needed such as: a great deal of her clothes, hair and makeup essentials, body and facial gel and lotion (she didn't like the one's her mother bought, her skin was too sensitive for them) as well as several other necessary items in her suitcases. She put her laptop, portable speakers and solar powered charger as well as her camera and her Sony digital reader in her backpack; Emma also packed a few pairs of cute shoes, one pair of fashion boots, her ice skates, snow pants, gloves, scarves, and tuque in a duffel bag (she and her parents were going to go skiing at Mont Cascade and skating on the Rideau Canal).

She called home, but got the answering machine, to let her parents know that she was about to leave and would arrive home in approximately 2 hours, put on her coat and winter boots, and headed outside into the cold. It was -26 (Celsius) outside and the wind-chill made it feel like it was -35, and about 35 cm of snow had fallen just last night. She opened her car door and put her bags and suitcases in the backseat. She got in the small car, put on the radio and headed towards the highway.

An hour later, Emma was nowhere near the halfway point. No, she was stuck, on a bridge, in a traffic jam and had been for the past 25 minutes and from the look of things would be there for a long time. Cursing in both English and French, she changed the radio station and luckily landed on one that was talking about the predicament she and hundreds more were facing:

"...la route 40 est blockée , il y a eu un accident. Un camion a tombé sur une voiture, l'homme dans la voiture est mort et six personnes sont blessés" said a man in a grave voice.

"Oh," thought Emma, she sighed, feeling bad for her impatience when someone not to far ahead of her had lost their life and other people were injured. She took her cell out of her handbag and dialed home.

After a few rings she heard her mom's somewhat tired sounding voice: "Hello?"

"Hey mom, I'm going to be late, there was an accident somewhere ahead of me," she said

"Oh, how bad is it?" Devaki Dubois-Chrétien asked her daughter, sounding suddenly wide awake.

"Well I can't see anything from here, but apparently someone died and others are injured so it might take hours" Emma answered

"That's terrible, imagine that poor family losing a loved one and juste avant Noël en plus!," she heard her mother sigh and repeat the information to her dad. "Well hopefully it

wont take too long to clear up."

"Yeah, anyways I'll call back later 'kay?"

"Okay sweetheart, be safe, J'taime, oh just a minute your dad wants to talk to you, okay?"

"J'taime aussi Ma, et ouais j'veux parler a Pa aussi." Emma answered.

"Okay bye, Emma!"

"Bye Ma."

"Hallo Emma, ça va?" Came the deep voice of her father, Michael Dubois-Chretien.

"Hallo Pa, non ça va pas, ça va fucking mal!" She exclaimed.

"Hey! Watch your language young lady!" he said mock angrily.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She said grinning.

"Écoute, fait attention okay? I dont want you to get into an accident too, you got the winter tires on like I told you, right?"

"Ummm..."

"Damn it Emma! Qu'est ce que j'tai dit! Christ! Tu m'écoute jamais!"

"I'm kidding dad, god! I got them put on a few days ago" she assured him

"Oh, well... good" he huffed.

"Alright see ya later dad!"

"Bye princess! Oh! and don't forget, I packed some things in the back of your car in case you need them, okay? Love you!"

"Bye dad, love ya too!"

She hung up the phone and sighed, running her hand through her long, curly dark hair. The traffic hadn't moved at all during the conversation with her parents. She got out of her car and into the freezing cold. She quickly opened the trunk, inside was a sleeping bag she brought for her friend Chantals massive sleepover party, next to it lay the bag her dad had talked about. She took out the bag, closed the trunk and brought it to the front of the car. Once inside, she opened the bag and started taking out the contents. In the large bag, there was a large wool blanket, some non-perishable food, a water bottle container, bottles of water, juice boxes, a solar powered flashlight, night vision binoculars, a lighter, a box of matches, pepper spay and a first aid kit.

She chuckled and put the blanket over her legs, pushed her chair back in a more comfortable position and decided to rest her eyes - for just a little while. Twenty minutes later, Emma, who had fallen asleep, woke up startled. She had heard a loud groaning noise. It was quiet for a moment, than a loud cracking noise was heard followed by screams. She felt her car sway and before she or anyone else could react, a large part of the bridge collapsed into the near freezing water below; taking Emma and about two dozen other people with her.

This is my first fanfic, I hope you liked it. Tell me what you think, constructive criticism is more than welcome!


	2. Chapter 2

Authors notes: Thank you to both Early Blessings and BellaRu who reviewed my first chapter, as well to anyone else who's giving this story a chance.

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Lord of the rings.

* * *

Emma could hear birds chirping in the distance as she lay on the soft ground. She could also feel the warmth from the sun's rays. The weather was nice and a little cool, as though it was only the beginning of fall. That was of course impossible since Canada was experiencing the start of a very cold winter. She opened her eyes, and promptly shut them again, as the sun stung them. Sitting up, she slowly opened her eyes again and looked around, taking in her surroundings. Beautiful trees with yellow and red leaves surrounded her. The grass was green and lush and the sky a nice and clear blue without a cloud in sight.

Her head spun, how in the world could she be in the middle of a forest, on what felt like a nice fall day, when the last thing she remembered was being stuck in a traffic jam, a result of an accident probably caused by the horrible weather, in the middle of a bridge?She then remembered something else. Didn't the bridge collapse? That's right, she had been stuck on the bridge and then it collapsed, taking her and probably many others with it.

I'm dead, She thought weakly. I've died and gone to heaven oh God! Her panic caused her to start hyperventilating. But then, why would heaven be the middle of a forest? Shouldnt it be somewhere in the clouds with big, shiny, gold gates and soft beautiful music playing? Right! She couldn't possibly be dead! Thank God! But hten how could she possibly be here, what- she Kidnapped off a bridge and dragged to the middle of a forest, in the middle of a different country somewhere in the southern hemisphere? That was so stupid! Never mind the fact that she clearly remembered falling, in her car, with a chunk of the bridge, into freezing freaking water!

She was dead, she was actually really dead.

'Dont panic, dont panic, dont panic,' She started chanting to herself, her voice going shriller with each word. 'Its going to be okay, everythings going to be fine, calm down, breath in, breath out...' she took her own advice and breathed in deeply and exhaled after a short pause. It didn't work at all.

'Okay, think clearly here Emma, I can not be dead, If I were dead, I wouldnt feel anything right?' She then pinched herself hard on the arm, which she should have done before, because when she felt the dull pain, she immediately calmed down and actually started laughing at her foolishness.

"Ha! God Im so stupid, of course Im not dead. If I was dead I wouldn't feel pain or have a panic attack! If my body was dead it wouldnt respond to anything!" She let out a relieved, but still shaky, breath with a big grin on her face.

Then she noticed something, or some things to be precise. One of her suitcases was about ten feet from her; and her others bags were also in nearby but scattered apart. Trying not to dwell on how or why her bags had been brought with her, she gathered them all up and put them next to her as she tried to figure out her - interesting and unusual situation.

"Where the hell am I?" She pondered out loud. Then she thought of books and movies she had read or watched; where a character somehow ends up in a different place, time or even world. She immediately tossed that idea out of her head with a snort.

'You know what', She thought to herself, 'Forget how I got here for now, your not going to get any answers in the middle of a forest, concentrate on how to get out'. She picked up and opened her handbag and checked her cell. 'No bars, figures' She thought exasperatedly.

A ,now, useless cell, no GPS, her laptop would definitely not work, and no compass – how the hell was she supposed to know what direction to take to get to the nearest town? Sighing yet again, she looked down at her things- there was no way in hell that she could possibly carry all these bags while hiking, for lord knows how long to... wherever. She didn't know how far or long she would need to walk for- she might be stuck in the wilderness for days! She was going to have to ditch a good amount of her things –'great., just great,' she thought to herself.

Emma went through her things, putting aside 2 suitcases full of clothes that would be unpractical to hike in, her makeup kit and a few other items. She now only had one suitcase, which wouldn't be too hard to pull along as the forest floor was quite even; her duffel-bag with some of her winter gear (now including her winter coat) which she would need if – no- _when_ she was back home; the emergency stuff her dad had thankfully left her, her school bag which contained her electronics, some food and drinks. Her sleeping bag was secured to the top of it.

Instead of putting her school bag on her back, which was now incredibly heavy, she attached it to her suitcase, put the duffel-bags strap across her chest and started walking away from the clearing she had been in, leaving behind some her favourite things.

After walking and struggling with her bags for several hours, the trees had thinned out a little and she had a better view of the darkening sky. Exhausted, Emma decided to take another break (which she had been doing every half hour) and set her things down and sat at the trunk of a large and old tree. Resting her head against the tree, she closed her eyes for a moment before grabbing her schoolbag and then ate a few crackers and drank some water. She glanced up at the sky again and sighed. She grabbed the flashlight and one of the smaller bottles of pepper spray her dad had packed her. Emma stood up, put the pepper spray in her jeans pocket, grabbed her things, the flashlight dangling from a string on her left wrist (like a wii remote) and continued walking.

Now that it almost nighttime, it was somewhat colder than earlier that day, making Emma glad that her hoodie was so warm and thick. She continued walking for another couple of hours before deciding to call it quits for the night – her feet couldnt take it any longer. She sat down on a piece of stone for a moment or two, recovering from her hike; and the she heard something- like a twig snapping from being stepped on. She tensed, and looked around, turning on her flashlight as she did so.

"Hello?" Emma called out, her voice waving slightly out of fear and nervousness. "Hello, is anyone there?"

She started breathing a little heavier and could feel her heart pounding in her chest – aiming the light from her flashlight in the surrounding area. She stepped forward, flashlight in one hand, pepper spray in the other; and called out again:

"Hello. Is anyone out there?" She said, forcing to keep her voice steady.

Nothing. Perhaps it was just an animal? She turned back around and was about to sit back down, when a figure stepped out from behind a tree, out of the darkness and into the light cast by the moon. The creature had blue scaly-looking skin, yellow beady eyes and, in its hand, a rusted sword.

Emma froze, fear paralyzing her as it came towards her, grinning maliciously, showing its yellow-brown teeth and licked it's thin lips.

"Hello pretty little girly, lets have us some fun eh?" It jeered.

The monster was about 2 feet away from her, when she regained control of her body, lifted her arm, took aim, spraying the monster in the face. It howled in pain as she turned around to run. However, before she could get far, another monster came out of nowhere, directly in front of her. Before she knew what was happening the monster had knocked the pepper spray out of her hand and had tackled her to the ground.

She screamed and thrashed against it, trying in vain to get it of her. It was straddled her and held both of her wrists with one hand. She screamed, if possible even louder, trying to break free. The creature on top of her seemed to be amused and –excited by her struggle. It traced a finger along her cheek and down to her neck. The monster than leaned down and licked where it had just touched her, chuckling as she screamed even louder as tears fell from her eyes, before she began pleading to it.

"Please,... please dont hurt me!" She begged. "Please stop... get off me!" She chocked out.

The creature laughed darkly, took out a dagger and held it to her throat.

"Shut up! or I'll slice up your pretty little neck," the creature spat out. It licked the side of her face again and she gagged as the smell from its rancid mouth filled her nose.

It sat back up, still holding tightly onto her wrists, its sharp nails digging into her flesh, and Emma whimpered, tears streaming down her face as the creature unzipped her hoodie. She redoubled her efforts to free herself from his grip and, angered, the monster took its dagger and cut a long but shallow gash from her wrist down to her elbow. She gasped out in pain, but kept as silent as possible when it brought the dagger back towards her throat threateningly.

When it was satisfied that she would stay still and quiet, it took the dagger away from her throat. It was about to cut open her cami, when out of nowhere, three figures leapt out into the clearing. The other monster that had still been clutching its face in agony was decapitated by a tall man. The monster on top of her was too slow to react and was knocked in the head with an axe held by a short bearded man. Emma, now free from her captor, got up and stumbled backwards. She turned around, about to run, when she ran right into another man.

She tried to back away from him, but he had already grabbed onto her arms. She struggled to get way from him in vain as he brought her closer to him, and wrapped one arm around her back, and put his other hand behind her head. He then started talking to her, in an unknown and beautiful language, with a soft and soothing voice,

Emma stopped struggling with the man; instead she found herself clutching at the front of his shirt and sobbed as he continued rubbing her back and speaking soothing words to her.. How long she cried in his arm, she did not know; but when she finally stopped, she wiped her eyes and looked up. The man, who was about a foot taller than her, was tanned with dark brown hair that almost reached his collarbone. He looked to be in his forties with kind, sympathetic blue eyes and was smiling sadly down at her. She also noted how he and his companions all wore medieval clothing and had, like the creatures that had attacked her, swords. Confused, but still to shaken to really care, she gave him a small smile back before looking back down. She then turned around, the two other men were nowhere to be seen, neither were corpses of the two monsters that had attacked her. The man gently put his hand on her shoulder to get back her attention.

"Are you hurt?" He asked gently, looking her over quickly. He found his answer as he noticed the blood dripping down her arm. He gently took her lifted her arm and looked at her wound.

"Oh...no, it doesnt hurt," she said softly, her mind still on what almost happened to her.

He looked up at her, noticing the distant look in her eyes, and frowned. He pushed back the rage and disgust he felt towards the orcs that had attacked the young woman in front of him and analyzed her. She was a beautiful, with light brown skin and dark brown eyes. She was also quite small, standing at only five feet five and looked to be about seventeen summers. Her hair was black, long and curly; and because she had her hair pulled back, he had a clear view of her ears, which had pink metal rings attached to them! Shaking his head he also noted that the girl was not wearing a dress, something completely unheard of. Instead she wore black tight-fitting breeches, boots that nearly reached her knees, and some sort of long sleeved vest over a yellow top. He had never encountered anyone in all his travels with such clothing.

"Where do you hail from lady...?" He paused waiting for her to supply him with her name.

"Emma. Emma Venika Dubois-Chretien," she answered. He stared oddly at her for a moment- only hobbits had last names.

Pushing that thought aside, he asked: "And where do you hail from lady Emma?"

Emma nearly laughed, lady Emma? Why the hell was he calling her lady Emma? 'This Dude is soo weird,' she thought. He seemed to be taking the whole medieval role playing thing waaay to seriously.

"Ottawa," she answered. He gave her a blank look. "Ottawa, you know, the capital of Canada." He was still staring at her as though she was speaking gibberish. "Canada. Oh come on! Its only the second biggest country in the world! You know the one people from other countries think is a frozen tundra!" she exclaimed, deeply annoyed.

He had never head of a country named Canada, perhaps the girl was delusional? But then again her clothing and her belongings were evidence enough that she was from a far distant land. He was interupted from his thoughts as she started speaking to him.

"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly."I shouldn't have blown up like that. Anyways, I told you my name. What's yours?" she asked.

He was somewhat amused by her and answered her with a slight smile: "Aragorn, son of Arathorn," he then searched her face for any sign of recognition and found none.

Instead she simply smiled at him, held out her hand and said: "Well, Aragorn, thank you so much, your friends too - you guys saved my life." she said, her voice full of gratitude.

He bowed his head again at her, took her hand in his, and instead of shaking it, raised it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. She raised a brow and blushed. He smiled at her, lowered and released her hand, before gesturing for her to follow him; to where the rest of the fellowship were waiting.

* * *

This was a hard chapter to write, hopefully as I continue it will get easier. I know usually when the girl falls into M-E, they don't have much things with them but I just can't see someone, especially a girl, spending such a long time in the wilderness without the basic things like a different set of clothes, hygienic products ect. especially surrounded by attractive guys. The electronics will serve an important purpose too. Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

Authors' notes: Im so sorry it took me so long to update, this chapter drove me nuts and I kept changing it. The next chapter should be more fun to do.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the rings.

* * *

Emma followed Aragorn until they reached the campsite where his eight companions waited. She looked them over briefly before looking back at Aragorn, not knowing what to do or what to expect. His companions were all men; five of them were little people- although one of them was taller than the others and she recognized him as one of the three that saved her. Standing behind them, was the other man who had helped save her, he was tall with red hair and looked to be in his late thirties or early forties; even taller than him was a man (_a very attractive man_) with long blond hair and finally, sitting on a log, was an old man dressed in gray and wearing a wizard's hat.

They were all dressed somewhat similarly to Aragorn -like they just came from some sort of medieval fair or something. Not only were these grown men in costumes (complete with swords and other weapons) doing their little role-playing thing in the middle of nowhere, but they had apparently walked here too, because they had a pony with them who seemed to be carrying most of their things.

'This just gets better and better,' she thought dryly, shaking her head slightly. 'Just don't question them about it -guys can get really touchy about things like that.' She thought to herself.

It was silent for a moment has they all stared at her, two of the little people in open curiosity – the others suspiciously. Aragorn walked past her, towards the old man and started speaking to him in the same language he had used to comfort her. They spoke, often glancing back at her, while the others continued to stare at her while muttering words to each other. Emma stood there, highly uncomfortable, and made to go to her things to have something to do, when she was yanked back. The good-looking blond guy, who must have super speed or something, was gripping her arm firmly, his eyes narrowed and full of suspicion; Aragorn and Gandalf had stopped talking- they were watching her closely.

"What?" She demanded, "this my stuff, I can go through my own bags if I want to! " She exclaimed, tugging her arm out the blonde's grip. Scowling she turned towards Aragorn: "And why are you two talking about me in a different language for, don't you think that's a little rude? And _why_ are you all looking at me as if I'm a criminal?" She demanded.

There was a short and silent pause as Aragorn, the blonde, and the old man all stared at her as though trying to figure something out, which was really starting to wear on her nerves. Not to mention that the others were alternating between staring at her as well and looking at said men.

It was the old man who spoke first. "Aragorn here has been informing me of what he has learned about you, but I wish to hear from you myself…. answer my questions, and be aware that I, as well as Legolas," he gestured to the man next to her, "_will know_ if what you say is truthful or not! Now, tell me, what is your name?" He asked.

"Emma Dubois-Chretien," she answered quickly.

"And where do you hail from Lady Emma?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"Ottawa, Ontario… that's in Canada."

He did not see any lies in her eyes, but like Aragorn, he had never heard of a land called Canada - strange, considering he had travelled all across Middle-Earth.

"Tell me of this Canada, I have never heard of it."

"Well it's the second biggest country in the world…. It's over 400 years old…" She continued to reel facts about the country, some of which shocked them, such as the fact that there was approximetly 34 million people; that seemed completely out of this world to them.

"34 million… surely you are mistaken" Aragorn had cried. "'Tis way too high an estmate."

"Actually, considering our size, our population is really low, the county south of us, The united States, is close to our size and has about 10 times more people." Stunned faces greeted her at those words.

Another thing they seemed to find weird too, was the fact that instead of the bloodline deciding who is next to rule, the Canadian population (men and women, poor and rich alike) voted for the prime minister.

"But surely _women_ and _peasants _can not make those sort of decisions," said the red haired man, then seeing her look of outrage, hastily continued "I simply mean that most women do not concern themselves with politics and peasants, who have no education, could not possibly understand how or who should run a country."

"Well, it's not hard to get informed on the issues. And we have a class system not a caste system, it's the amount of wealth that matters in our society not your bloodline.

Shocked by all that she had said to them, they let the information sink in. Gandalf, closed his eyes and sighed, he had a theory concerning the girl and where she came from, however he wanted to find out a little more about how she was brought her first, before he told everyone his belief. But, before he could open his mouth, Legolas asked the next question.

"Where are your travelling companions Lady Emma?"

"Ummm… I wasn't traveling with anyone." She answered. The men wore incredulous looks, and this time it was the tall redheaded man that spoke up.

"But surely your husband would not let his wife wander the dangerous woods alone -"

"I'm not married!" She interrupted, a look of disgust on her face, which didn't go unnoticed by the fellowship –however they knew now was not the time to question it.

"Well then surely your father would not let his daughter face the wild by herself… these are dangerous times and even if they were not, letting a young girl go off by herself …-"

Emma interrupted him yet again, he was talking about her as if she was a little kid that needed her parents' permission to go out and do what she wanted!

"I was traveling back home to be with them," she gritted out, irritated "I was driving home, but got stuck on the bridge in a traffic jam. Then, next thing I know, the bridge collapsed." She said trying not to let any emotions show.

Silence, for a couple of moments which was interrupted by Gandalf.

"What do you remember after the collapse of the bridge?"

"Nothing. The bridge fell,.. " She nervously pulled some of her hair behind her ears and crossed her arms, "and then I woke up in the middle of the forest, walked practically all day and then …well…you know the rest."

"Child," began the old man, "This might be hard to take in and understand, but considering that you awakened far from your home, after a dreadful accident, you need to consider the idea that you are perhaps... _not in your world_. None of us have ever heard of the land named Canada nor the other ones you have mentioned. Your accent and words are strange to us as is your clothing and the customs or practices that you have talked about.

Emma said nothing. She had known, not long after her arrival here, that she could not be in Canada or the northern parts of the United States. And those monsters could never have existed anywhere on earth, and the clothing that these people wore was way to medieval – not to mention that they used swords, axes and Blondie had a bow and arrows slung on his back. Maybe she was in a different world, but then, how could she get out?

Gandalf continued, "_Have you_ ever head of Middle-Earth young one?

"_Middle-Earth_?...nope" she said, making a popping noise at the end of the word. "we just call it planet Earth, there's no middle about it…" she finished lamely.

Another long and awkward silence. Before one of the short men, who appeared to be the youngest, jumped up from where he was sitting, came in front of her, bowed his head slightly before introducing himself:

"Hello Lady Emma," the little man said cheerfully, "I am Peregrin Took –Pippin for short, my companions and I-" he gestured to the tree other little people "are hobbits of the shire" he finished proudly.

Emma smiled at him and held out her hand. He took hold of it, and, before he could kiss it like Aragorn, she shook it. Pippin cocked his head to the side, confused, as she replied:

"Hi Pippin, I'm Emma…. _Just Emma_ I don't want to be called Lady Emma or anything close to it." she said looking at the others as she said this, to let them know it went for everyone.

Some in the fellowship raised an eyebrow at that, surprised, before Pippin decided to introduce the others.

"That's Prince Legolas of Mirkwood, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadroc Bradybuck (my cousin), and Frodo Baggins (another cousin). Over there is Lord Gimli, then Lord Boromir, Gandalf and of course, you already know Aragorn!" He said this all very fast and cheerfully, as if the previous hour-long discussion had not happened, pointing to each person , who at their turn, made a small gesture of acknowledgement.

Emma blinked, taking in the information before turning towards the blonde guy named Leg-something. "Did he say you're a Prince?" she asked.

"Aye, " he said in a soft voice. "Though I too care little for titles."

Emma cocked her head to the side; she had never come this close to royalty before. She didn't know if she was supposed to curtsey or something and instead just said: "Oh, right" blankly, before looking back at Pippin.

"And what did you call yourself a hob-something?" She asked.

"Hobbit," he said hastily, "Hobbit or half-ling" he answered a little offended that she had never heard of a hobbit before, but then again according to the others, hobbits were nearly unheard of in the world of men.

"Sorry" she muttered, embarrassed. She now noticed that he (and three of his friends) had pointed ears, hairy feet and their body was more proportional than that of little people she had seen back home.

"S'alright miss Emma, " he replied, smiling to show that he was not angry.

"Well," said the plumper hobbit ('what was it? Oh, yeah Sam') "Shall I warm up the remaining stew for you to eat miss Emma?" he asked her.

"Err…no that's fine I'm not really hungry right now, thank you anyway" she replied.

"Did you already eat something?" He pressed.

"No…but it's been a long day… I'm really tired, I just want to get ready for bed and go to sleep."

But before she could open her suitcase, Leg-dude had stopped her again and said: "I am sorry, but we need to make sure you don't have any weapons"

"Why?"

"It never hurts to cautious in these dark times," he answered.

"Legolas is right, not checking your belongings, would be foolish of us…it should not concern you unless you have something to hide." Said (what-was-it-again? Bo-something, damn she was bad with their names!) obviously distrustful of her.

"Fine, whatever" she huffed, "just get on with it."

"Very well, before we go through your bags, tell me what is this?" The redhead asked, holding her pepper spray bottle. "Is this what incapacitated the orc?"

"Well..yeah and it's called pepper spray."

"And how exactly did you make this pepper spray?" He asked, he and the others had their eyes fixed on her. 'When are they gonna stop doing that?' She tought exasperatly.

"I didn't make the pepper spray," she said very slowly "my dad bought it for me at a store, anyone in my world can buy it."

Accepting her answer, he then asked the same of her flashlight. She took it from him and flicked it on and off, which made them jump up, and some to even point their weapons at her while shouting things long the lines of witchcraft.

She snorted, and said: "It's a flashlight, they've existed for at least a century and _everyone_ is supposed to have at least one flashlight in their homes, in case of an emergency."

She handed the flaslight to Merry, who spent the next several minutes casting the light in every direction, completely amazed.

While Merry was busy playing with the flashlight, Aragorn stepped toward her suitcase, opened it up and looked inside. He went through the clothes a bit to make sure there wasn't something underneath them, before going through the other compartments. He didn't find anything of interest in them, only a variety of female hygienic such as an assortment of different soaps, lotions foreign things that he had Emma identify and sometimes explain. He then moved onto her duffel bag and found nothing suspicious; but when he opened her school bag, there was the things in there that intersted him.

"What is this?" Aragorn demanded, he was holding her mac laptop.

"It's just my laptop," she said and then had to spend the next few minutes trying to explain how it works and what you could do with it. She told them how it wouldn't have internet connection (not that they really understood) but that she could show them things that were downloaded on it. She opened up a file with some of her pictures on it and showed them a few. She coulnd't help but smile at the looks on their faces.

"'Tis like a portrait, but much more realistic….as if the person and the world around them were frozen, and made small enough to be put in here…truly remarkable!" Said Boromir

Emma couldn't help but chuckle and contined showing the pictures, most of which were of her with her parents. Her father, a french-Canadian of Scottish descent, was a forty-seven year old man with with brown hair, green eyes, and was slowly gaining weight. Her mother, who was half-indian, half-jamaican, was a beautiful woman of forty-six who looked several years younger. Her parents had met in College, gotten married as soon as they had graduated and were still happily married after over 20 years of marriage.

"God I can't wait to get out of this mess and get home," Emma thought miserably to herself.

She turned off the laptop (much to their dissapointment), trying to get rid of her homesickness and just wanting to go to sleep. Aragorn however, made her identify and explain the other objects in her bag, which took another 20 minutes, before he was satisfied and let her go to her things.

She opened up her suitcase and took out pajamas, intent on changing out of her clothes as soon as possible to get some much needed rest, but then stopped, she really didn't want to go into the woods by herself to change. She was still terrified from earlier but didn't want to announce that fact to all of them. Luckily, Aragorn, sensing her distress, came up to her.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I want to change in my p.j's but I'm… kinda scared to go into the woods to change," she answered, the last part of her answer coming out in almost a whisper.

Aragorn smiled kindly at her, and led her into the woods, away from the others. When they reached a good spot, Aragorn turned around without prompting, and Emma quickly changed out of her dirty clothes. When she was done putting on her p.j's, she put some toothpaste on her toothbrush and brushed her teeth before taking a little bit of water to rinse out her mouth. When she was done brushing her teeth she washed her face, using a piece of a shirt she had ripped as a rag since she had not packed one with her. Aragorn, with her permission, turned around as she was applying lotion to her face and then waited patiently for her to finish before leading her back to camp.

When they got back, Emma put her stuff away,with her dirty clothes going in a plastic bag, before she laid out her sleeping bag. The others seemed really uncomfortable, weird seeing as though it was _her _that was stuck with a bunch of strangers of the opposite sex. Trying to act like nothing was weird about the situation, and like she didn't realize that they were all looking at her, she mumbled goodnight to them and tried to get a good night's sleep- _which didn't happen_.


End file.
